


What We Like Is This

by mint_green_librarian



Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Genre: Angst and Drama, Cheesy, Chuck and Blair deserved so much better, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, My First Fanfic, Post-Episode AU: 3.15 Gossip Girl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mint_green_librarian/pseuds/mint_green_librarian
Summary: Blair and Chuck's relationship develops through college, meeting Chuck's long lost mother, Jack's continued scheming, and other shenanigans of the Upper East Side's most scandalous couple.
Relationships: Chuck Bass/Blair Waldorf
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	1. A Weekend Upstate

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Chuck and his mother, Elizabeth, started getting to know each other after episode 3.15, and she isn’t in on Jack’s scheme to destroy Chuck and Blair. Chuck has not traded Blair for the Empire Hotel, though Jack is still a conniving creep trying to emotionally abuse Chuck and hit on Blair. Everything before episode 3.15 is cannon, and I may take some elements from later episodes into this fic where it makes sense to add them. Trying desperately to rewrite Chair into a healthy relationship with the satisfying emotional arc that the show didn’t give me.

Blair stepped out of the town car and walked coolly into the bed and breakfast. Her tan trench coat stirred in the late spring breeze, as her stilettos tapped down the length of the walk.

“I have a reservation for Waldorf,” she said to the receptionist and checked her phone. A single text message read, “On my way,” and she smiled briefly.

“Yes, Miss, I’ve got it right here. Give me just a moment to get your key. Go ahead and mark your breakfast choices on this card.”

While she deliberated between croissants with fresh jams and butter or a parfait with seasonal fruits and organic flax seed granola, she heard the door to the B&B open and a velvety voice calling out to her.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Blair Waldorf.”

“Chuck.” She handed the card back to the receptionist and took the old-fashioned brass key. A wooden tag with the room number had been tied to it with a deep red, satin ribbon. Blair turned toward the stairs, pausing as Chuck approached the reception desk. “I thought you were stuck at the Empire handling a Jack situation.” She recalled the empty scotch glasses, half smoked cigars, and strewn about lingerie from a fleet of call girls she had seen at his suite at the Empire two mornings ago. As she had exited the elevator, Jack had entered, reeking of alcohol and piss, and winking at her. The suite was a wreck, and she had found Chuck brooding.

“With enough _persuasion_ ,” he said leaning on the reception desk, “I convinced Jack to back off. A weekend upstate should bring me some well-deserved rest. And I can think of a few ways you could help me clear my head.” He eyed her up and down, and his lips curved into that close-mouthed smirk that made everyone do a double take when they first met him. Even the straight boys.

“Ah, I don’t think so! You were supposed to have lunch with me and Elizabeth yesterday, and you blew us off to recover after your Lost _Wednesday_ with Jack.” Blair turned toward the staircase to find the room.

“I can assure you it was all business,” Chuck said following her.

“Oh yeah. The prostitutes were all there on business, I’m sure.” She stopped on the landing and turned to him. Chuck paused two steps below her. “It’s bad enough that you blew me off—not to mention your own mother—but to blow us off for some high-class hookers. I thought you had changed, Chuck!” She climbed the rest of the staircase and found the first door on the left and inserting the key into the lock. Her hair fell forward, covering her face from the side.

“You wear the scorned woman look well, Blair,” he said, still smirking at the top of the stairs.

Blair smiled behind her hair as she turned the key in the door. “And I’m glad to see you still remember our summer game.” She opened the door to the room and Chuck followed her inside. As he closed the door, she slipped off her trench coat and let it fall to the floor. In her black silk tap pants and matching silk camisole, she stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“This was always my favorite part of the game,” he said, as he pulled her in closer, pressing his lips into hers. It had been almost a year ago that Chuck had told her he loved her, and he was even more sure of it now. Together, they fell into bed, forgetting about New York, the Empire, and Jack’s latest scheme for a moment in each other’s love. They awoke in the morning to breakfast at the door. Two croissants.


	2. Lost Wednesday

_Earlier that Week_ -

Chuck awoke on a bright spring morning to the soft ding of the elevator in his suite. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table and read 7:13 am. Two minutes before the alarm.” This better be important,” he muttered to himself.

“Good morning, nephew. You have a minute?” Jack said walking into Chuck’s room. “Cause trust me, you’re gonna wanna hear this.” His lips curled up in an especially pervy smile.

“And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” He squinted his eyes against the morning sun but didn’t sit up.

“Funny you should mention pleasure. You know, Elizabeth is just—”

“You leave her alone!” He threw the comforter back, fully awake now, and turned to look at Jack.

“Oh, I tried, but she just couldn’t resist the old Bass magic.”

“ _What_ did you do.” Chuck’s dark eyes bored into his uncle’s, but Jack didn’t flinch.

“It’s not just what _I_ did. You should have seen _her_ the other night. She may be polite for company, but in bed, she’s wild.”

“Get. Out.”

“I haven’t even told you the best part. Last night I proposed, and she said yes.” Jack said grinning. “Is it alright if I start calling you son?” His voice was chipper, but his eyes were smug.

“OUT! NOW! Or I’ll have security escort you out!”

Jack turned and walked out of the room and toward the elevator. Just before he was out of sight, he turned once more to Chuck and cocked his head, “Hey, weren’t you just about to sign the Empire over to Elizabeth?”

As soon as Jack was gone, Chuck leaned over the edge of the bed and hung his head in his hands. Then he reached for his phone and dialed 1.

“Blair, I need your help. It’s Jack.”

***

Across town, Blair stepped out of the limo at NYU to go take her art history midterm; no way did she live in the dorms for a _second_ semester. Her transfer application to Yale had been turned in weeks ago, and her grades were just as remarkable as they had been at Constance Billard. A week later, she had had an interview scheduled with the university. Regular office visits with her journalism and art history professors had secured her glowing letters of recommendation, making her a prime candidate. True, she had been waitlisted even after all that, but her father’s generous alumni donation couldn’t hurt her chances. She just needed to finish this miserable year with middle-class hipsters, detestable roommates, and— just not fitting in. That last thought stung more than she expected. No matter. She would be off to where she belonged next fall. A soft chime from her Louis Vuitton handbag let her know Chuck was calling and pulled her thoughts back to the present.

“It’s Jack.”

That conniving invertebrate. “What’s he up to now?”

***

A few hours later, Chuck and Blair shared a pot pie lunch at the Lion. She knew she had done flawlessly on her midterm, and she was itching to get down to what she loved to do best—well, second best—with Chuck. Scheming. As he filled her in on the conversation he’d had that morning, she watched his face flit from burning rage to hurt and betrayal. He’d only had a mother for a few weeks, and she had already turned on him.

“So Jack’s got his poisonous, disgusting claws in your mother, and he’s doing it to get the Empire from you.”

Chuck nodded, fuming. “And with all the accusations against me, and the public pressuring me to step down as owner while we handle the accusations. With them engaged, handing over ownership to her might as well just be handing the Empire straight to Jack.”

She reached across the table and grabbed his hand, gently rubbing her thumb over his. “We won’t let that happen. I won’t let him get away with it. We’ll just have to convince Elizabeth not to trust Jack.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, then looked up at her, ashamed. “By asking her instead to trust the son she never wanted, who’s accused of sexual harassment?”

Blair considered for a moment what he had said. The brown of his eyes dimmed, and it killed her that his happiness was always so short lived. She gave his hand another gentle squeeze. “Giving you up was her loss.”

“How can you be so sure.” It was barely audible.

“Because I love you, Chuck Bass, and I could never walk away from you.”

He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it. “So,” he said, meeting her gaze, “how do we convince her Jack is evil?”

“You remember our game from the summer?” she said with a smirk.

***

Back at the penthouse, Blair laid out her clothes while Dorota ordered dinner, drinks, and several expensive escorts to Chuck’s suite at the Empire for the next evening.

“The plan is simple. Chuck invites Jack to the suite for drinks and a little fun. I invite Elizabeth for a late dinner with Chuck, and when we arrive at the suite, she’ll take one look at that reptile of a fiancé in his natural habitat and run.”

“For record, Miss Blair, I think this bad idea.”

“And for the record, Dorota, you don’t get a say! Now finish the dinner order, while I call Elizabeth.”

“But what about Mr. Chuck?”

She paused, and for a moment a look of doubt crossed her face. She remembered why they stopped their game after only a few months, when Serena had asked if she ever worried that he would cheat on her. She remembered the Chuck she grew up with. Chuck _before_. “He won’t.” she said composing herself again and looking back at Dorota. “He’ll wait until Jack’s really drunk, make sure he’s gone to bed with the girls, and he’ll just keep offering scotch. I’ll be the scorned woman again, and Elizabeth will see what a rake Jack is.”

“Ok, Miss Blair.”

“Don’t ‘ok Miss Blair’ me! Go! Call!”

Dorota left the room, mumbling in Polish all the way. Blair pulled out her phone to call Elizabeth and set the plan in motion for the next night.

_Careful, B. You know what they say. Give a Bass an inch, and he’ll swim a mile with another woman -XOXO gossip girl_

***

The morning of the scheme, everything went smoothly. Blair finished her Journalism midterm with twenty minutes to spare, and even bought macarons to give Elizabeth that evening. After studying for her last midterm and confirming with Chuck that Jack had arrived at the suite, she met Elizabeth for cocktails in the hotel’s bar before dinner.

“It’s been so good getting to know you these past few weeks, Elizabeth. Chuck has just been so happy having you here.”

“I’m just grateful he wanted to let me in after I wasn’t there to see him growing up.”

“If it’s not too bold, what made you decide to come back into his life?”

“Actually, it was Jack.”

“Jack? As in Uncle Jack?”

“Yes! He reached out to me a few months ago to let me know how hard Chuck had taken the loss of his father last year. He thought knowing his mother might bring him some comfort. It’s really sweet the way he cares about his nephew.”

“Yeah, sweet!” Blair smiled her biggest, fakest smile, and took a sip of her cocktail. “Sweet as a vinegar martini,” she mumbled. Her phone chimed from the table with a text from Dorota.

**Dorota’s water break! Come now! - Vanya**

“Oh my God! We have to go!”

“Go?”

“Dorota’s having her baby!”

“Are you…sure I should go with you? I—I hardly know her.”

“Less talking, more leaving!”

Blair ran out of the hotel, Elizabeth in tow, and hailed a cab. In the taxi, the minutes crawled by. Vanya texted updates when he could. Chuck texted when Jack was drunk. Elizabeth sat in silence, still not sure she should be there but not quite comfortable interrupting Blair’s intensity. Blair counted the cars as they passed, and the people in them. They should have just waited for a limo instead of catching the first cab to stop for them. Vanya’s updates eventually stopped coming, which only made her more anxious, and Chuck’s texts came more often, more concerned as the evening wore on.

***

Back at the suite, Chuck waited for Jack to arrive. A decanter filled with Bunnahabhain 25 and two glasses sat at the bar, ready to be savored. It was one of his favorite scotches, smokey and sweet, like Blair. He would need that comfort to get through the evening without snapping.

Within minutes, the elevator dinged, and Jack stepped out to greet him. “You know Chuck, it’s really mature of you to invite me for a congratulatory dinner just before leaving my suite.”

Chuck gritted his teeth. “It’s the least I can do to congratulate my uncle on his engagement. Have some scotch. Let me throw you a proper Chuck Bass engagement party.”

“Aw, is someone a little bitter?” Jack poured himself a glass and sat on the sofa. “Cheer up, nephew. You can still have your trust fund.” As he sipped from the glass, Chuck poured one for himself and joined him on the sofa. They tossed back their glasses in silence until dinner arrived.

When the staff brought in the dinner cart, Chuck opened another bottle of Bunnahabhain and made a point to refill Jack’s glass as soon as it emptied. He sipped his own scotch slowly and casually whenever Jack gulped. The warmth of the alcohol spread through his body, numbing the disgust he felt asking about Jack’s wedding plans with his mother. Anger boiled in his chest, but the liquor was a protective coating holding it below the surface and making it safe to touch. Small sips, he reminded himself. Stay in control.

“A toast. To keeping it in the family” Chuck said. He took care to slur his words as though he were blackout drunk, and he was just tipsy enough to pull it off while maintaining control. Jack laughed along with his joke and threw back another glass. The elevator door dinged one more time, and women in short, glittery dresses and heels filed into the room.

“You’re going to love this next part.” Chuck flashed a grin at his uncle. They quickly abandoned their food to turn their attention to the escorts and a newly opened bottle of Champaign.

**B. Jack’s drunk. Bring my mother.**

He tucked his phone back into his pocket, took a sip of Champaign, and caught himself eyeing a woman with dark hair and brown eyes set in a studious looking face. In her deep red slip dress, she was stunning. Last summer, she might have been a mark for their game, he realized, so he approached her to set up the ruse for tonight. Jack was already flirting with two other women across the room. It would only be a matter of time now. He chatted with the escort, feigning interest while he waited for the elevator to open one more time.

**Everything is in motion. Where are you two?**

No answer. Jack was still flirting and drinking Champaign with the two women on the couch. His hand rested on the thigh of the blonde one, but otherwise, nothing was happening. Chuck clenched his fist and released it. He needed something to happen, something to advance the plan, to release his anger, to punish Jack and Elizabeth for what they had done.

**He’s not taking the bait.**

He crossed the room to pour Jack more Champaign, followed by the woman in red.

“Why don’t you stay the night with them, Jack. Enjoy one last night of freedom from monogamy.”

“You know me well. But what I really want is what you have, Chuck.” Jack winked as he said that, and it infuriated him.

Turning back to the one in the red dress, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close to him, hoping Jack would follow his lead. His free hand pulled the straps of her dress over her shoulders one at a time, letting it fall to the floor. “I’m flattered that you think I’ve changed,” he said, smoothing the strain out of his voice as he talked.

“Please. Like you haven’t been texting Blair all night.” Jack deadpanned. Even so, his eyes glanced over the now exposed lingerie of the woman in Chuck’s arms. The corner of his mouth curved up, and his pupils dilated. “I suppose a little looking can’t hurt though.”

Finally. He watched Jack as the other two slipped off their dresses and pulled him off the sofa. As they pulled Jack into the other room, Chuck trailed his fingers down the other woman’s arm slowly for effect, and then stepped back from her once Jack was out of sight. Before sitting down on the couch and pulling out his phone again, hiss eyes ran up and down the length of her body one last time.

**Bring Elizabeth now. He’s done.**

…

**Where are you, B?**

…

**Everything ok?**

***

Anastasia was born at 2:31 am. Blair texted a picture of her, swaddled in pink and cooing in Dorota’s arms, to Chuck before nodding off in a chair in the hospital room. By the time she and Elizabeth arrived at Chuck’s suite it was late morning. The place was a disaster. Bras and panties littered the floor, while empty scotch glasses, Champaign flutes, and bottles crowded the bar and coffee table. On the sofa, Chuck still slept wearing his clothes from the previous night with a red, lacy bra in his lap.

Blair stepped out of the elevator first, just as the girls gathered their clothes and got ready to leave. Jack walked out of the bedroom reeking of stale alcohol and sweat, while a light smudge of crimson lipstick peeked out from behind his ear. With his collar unbuttoned and tie loose, he winked at Blair as he passed her on the way to the elevator. She scowled back at him. Just as he reached the door, he saw Elizabeth looking right at him.

_Looks like one hell of a family reunion. But which Bass is getting caught this time? -XOXO gossip girl_


	3. Upheaval

The commotion of the late morning’s arrivals and departures and had stirred Chuck awake, and, forgetting the scheme in his lingering sleepiness, he sat up to greet his mother and his girlfriend. Their stunned faces, however, gave him pause. A tense silence cut into the air of the suite, like a loose thread in a fine shirt pulled tight enough to snag the fabric. Finally, Elizabeth spoke.

“Is this what you’ve been planning all along?” She turned to Jack, “Is this why you reached out to me after all these years? And you two. You’re just like him!” Her eyes were bright with anger and betrayal. “This is why I left twenty years ago—all of you,” she said, turning to Chuck. “I should never have come back.”

As she turned to leave, two Basses called out to her, off beat and out of tune from one another. 

“Elizabeth, wait!” 

But it was too late. She boarded the elevator as quickly as she had come. Blair turned after her with a weak I-can’t-believe-you scoff in Chuck’s direction. As she left the suite, Jack met her gaze, and she smirked, tilting her head. Meeting her challenge with a nasty I-promise-you-this-isn’t-over look, Jack picked up his suit coat and blocked elevator doors just before they closed.

“Don’t think I don’t know where you’re going with this,” he said as the doors closed again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jack. You’re both swine.” Blair maintained her pout with ease. After all, Chuck had been an absolute pig even with her until just last year. Slipping back into the old roles was familiar, even if it was just a scheme. 

“Cheer up, Blair. If anything, we Basses are consistent. And Chuck is a Bass through and through. Or did you think he would really change for you? Poor girl”

“Oh look, it’s our floor, and seven minutes in _Hell_ with Jack Bass is over. Run along now.” 

With that, they parted, and Blair made her way back to her penthouse.

The penthouse was still and quiet without Dorota. Blair sat on her chaise lounge to rest after being up all night and check on Chuck. 

**How did it go last night?**

***

The wreckage of the night before still covered the tables, and Chuck’s head was throbbing. Even though he had paced himself early on, he had let go as the plan fell apart and his worry grew. By the time Blair sent the picture of Dorota and her baby, he had been mentally preparing to have lost her in a car accident like he had lost Bart last year. The thought tore him apart, and he could hardly focus on anything beside the rich, smoky taste of his scotch. 

Now he couldn’t get the look on his mother’s—Elizabeth’s—face as she accused him of the same debauchery as his uncle and his father, abandoning him a second time. He picked up his phone and called her, but it rang and went to voicemail. He called three more times, waiting for it to ring until the voicemail picked up again. The third time, the call went straight to voicemail. He sat with his head in his hands, then banged his fists on the table. He reached for the decanter and poured himself another glass. 

She didn’t even know him. She had abandoned him before he could crawl, and barely made an effort now before writing him off as a Bass just like his father. And maybe he was that bad. His friends knew it when he planned those lost weekends in high school. Dan knew it when he punched him junior year to protect Jenny. Jack knew it and exploited it. Because of Jack even the board of Bass Industries knew it. That’s _why_ the Empire was so damn important. He needed it to prove he could be better than Bart. 

But even that was out of reach. 

“There is no good in me,” he thought to himself and tossed back some more scotch. 

Just then, his phone vibrated with a text from Blair. He read it and set the phone back down. She would find out eventually and leave him, too. Everyone did. He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes, waiting for the last bit of the headache subside. Another vibration let him know Blair had texted again.

**What happened C?**

**Leave me alone Blair.**

He set his phone back down on the coffee table and went to bed.

***

As she boarded the elevator at the Empire for the second time that day, she could feel the exhaustion setting in. Two hours of sleep in a disgusting hospital waiting room chair had taken its toll. As soon as she made sure Chuck was going to be alright, she would lock herself in the bathroom with some macarons and soak in the tub. Bile crept up into the back of her throat as the elevator heaved itself up to the suite. When it reached its zenith, she hurtled out into the living space, as if staying in the elevator for a second longer would cause the burning anxiety in the back of her throat to burst out.

Blair set her bag down on the coffee table and found Chuck in his bed staring blankly up at the ceiling. Without a word, she climbed in and wrapped her arms around him. He melted into her embrace and buried his face in her neck, breathing in her scent. After a moment, he gripped her tighter, pouring out his grief and despair in his embrace. She held him gently through it, turning sometimes to kiss his forehead or stroke his cheek. Slowly, he relaxed. As she stroked his cheek one more time, he lifted his head and kissed her lips. “Thank you,” he whispered before kissing her again. 

“Let’s go away this weekend,” she said. “We can finish playing this game the right way.”

He puller her in closer to him, murmuring in agreement.

“I know a little B&B where no one will find us.”


End file.
